Cleaning Up College Basketball: If I Ruled College Basketball…Part #3 by Chris Filios. Check it out today!

Cleaning Up College Basketball: If I Ruled College Basketball…Part #3 by Chris Filios

Cleaning Up College Basketball:  Season Schedule

College basketball is the longest sports season of any in college athletics. Also, being a winter sports season, it’s competitive sports season covers both semesters (or all 3 terms in quarters)- something that fall and spring sports don’t have to deal with (for the most part).

I propose that the college basketball competitive season be lengthened. I understand that this probably a very unpopular idea for many reason, but here are my “rough” thoughts…

• Move the start of the season up 1 month.
• Mandatory weeklong Christmas Break.
• Limit to 2 games maximum per week, unless participating in preseason tournament with 3 games (ex. Maui, Advocare, etc.)

Cleaning Up College Basketball:  Why?

• If we are truly in the STUDENT-athlete business, limiting the number of games in a week and limiting the majority of the games to the weekends means less travel during the week and less missed class for the STUDENT-athlete.
• I believe that too many games are being played and there isn’t enough development. Spreading the season out and limiting it to 2 games a week would allow more time for individual and team development. Thus, providing more developed players and better performance on the court
• Spreading out the games means more prioritization on the health of the athlete through more rest and recovery time, which should lead to fewer injuries.

Cleaning Up College Basketball:  Game Schedules

No more non-division 1 games. Period.

Cleaning Up College Basketball:  NCAA Tournament

As I stated in Part 1 of this piece, Division 1 needs to shrink. With less teams in D1, there is no need for the play-in games in the tournament. The NCAA Tournament would go back to 64 teams. There is no doubt that the “First Four” games have been exciting and that several teams that have played in those games have gone on to have major impacts n the tournament. However, with less teams, there is no longer the need for those games.

Cleaning Up College Basketball:  Game Rules

The game rules need to move towards unification with NBA, FIBA, and even to an extent with high school.

Cleaning Up College Basketball:  Change to Quarters, no more halves

• Men’s college basketball is the last organization still playing halves. Why? It makes no sense and I don’t respect the answer, “cause that’s how we have always done it.” I respect tradition and history, but that is just a poor excuse to not change.
• This would help with the pace of the games.
o Just like in NBA and FIBA, fouls would reset at end of quarter. Less free throws being shot. More game play.
o There would also be 1 less media timeout per half. There would be a media timeout at half way mark of each quarter and then you would have end of quarter, which would give you 3 stoppages as opposed to the current 4.

Shot Clock

I personally would want the shot clock to move to 24 seconds as it is in the NBA and FIBA. However, I am ok with the 30-second shot clock that college current uses.

I do not like the new re-set rules though. The college basketball rules panel approved a rule permitting a reset of the shot clock to 20 seconds when the ball is inbounded in the frontcourt after a foul by the defense. If more than 20 seconds remains on the shot clock, the shot clock will not be reset. I understand that this is to speed up play in the game, but it seems to me that it “rewards” the defense. It rewards them by not punishing them. If they foul, they should have to guard for a full shot clock, not a reduced time. Fouling should be a penalty. The goal is to reduce fouling and have more freedom of movement and play. Fouling should be a penalty.

Timeouts

I know this is probably going to be wildly unpopular…but we need to shift to the FIBA rule that there are no “live-ball” timeouts. No player or coach would have the ability to call a timeout while the ball is in play. Instead, they would only be able to call timeout in dead ball situations. Like FIBA, you would call the timeout with the score table who would then blow horn to indicate the timeout rather than calling the timeout with the official. It is time for coaches to spend more time in practice teaching players how to play the game- especially in late game situations, rather than relying on timeouts to stop play and draw up plays. If we want players deciding the outcome of the game, we need to put more control of the game in their hands. This would also lead to better flow late in the game without all the stoppages.

I would also reduce the overall number of timeouts that a team can call by 1. Currently they have 4 timeouts, but can only carry over 3 to the 2nd half- giving them 1 “use it or lose it” timeout. I would make it 3 timeouts but can be used any time during the game, no more use it or lose it. This would also contribute to the pace of the game and further put more emphasis on coaches doing more teaching of how to play the game in practice.

Widen the key/lane

I would widen the lane to match the FIBA lane. There are less and less back to the basket bigs and less offense predicated on throwing the ball in the post. Widening the lane would lead to greater spacing for cutting and individual play.

No more 1 and 1 in the bonus

NBA and FIBA do not have 1 and 1 when a team hits the bonus…neither should college basketball. All non-shooting fouls in the bonus would be 2 shots. This would greater emphasize better defense, less fouling, and a free flowing game.

Don’t get me wrong; I do think that our game is overall in a good place. Although, I have mentioned many changes that I would make to help better our game, I do think that much does not need to change to keep the overall health positive. These topics are always going to be highly subjective and have a wide array of opinions depending on personal preference and experience. As long as we can always have vigorous, open debate and thoughtful reflection on how we can continue to improve the game, we will be in a good position.